It was just a sign!

At least that's how it started anyway!

Okay, so if you read Dorie's entry yesterday (yes, it was a Monday and she posted...but it was just a warning to let you know it'd be me writing today), you know I'm just a substitute. Don't worry, I'm a fun sub. The kind that, back in the day, we all liked because she was totally clueless so it made the day go by fast! Dorie considers my substituting a gift for her birthday...okaaay, just a bit of pressure!

So...for Dorie's birthday I made her a sweet little sign to hang above her dining room table. For the artwork, I used the font Bickham Script for the text and the border design is actually a font too, called Bodoni Ornaments ITC. It's full of really pretty shapes and designs, like this swirly one. You can set up a sign like this in any computer program (Word, Publisher, etc). It's basically a text box with type inside.My sign measures at 14.5 x 9.5 because the piece of black foam board I had laying around was 15 x 10 and I wanted a quarter inch border around it. So I took the sign and using double stick tape, I carefully mounted it on the board.Then I smoothed it out to make sure there were no bubbly areas (oh my, those hands -someone get this girl some hand lotion stat!) and repeated the mounting on both sides of the sign. To hang the sign, I used picture hangers and wire. The hangers easily stick right into the foam board. I did use a dot of super glue to make sure they were in tight - if you do that, be VERY careful...I almost had two fingers stuck together.And here is how the sign looks hanging above the dining room table.After making the sign, I had the craft bug....so I decided to print 11 x 17 placemats...And look how cute they look with a place setting! I printed 16 of them for Dorie...just in case she decided to have 15 people over for dinner!After the placemats, I still wasn't done crafting. I took that Bodoni Ornaments ITC font and, with the same design, I reversed the color to green on white paper and decided to use it as wrapping paper for soaps. I just love pretty soaps. So, I printed 8.5x11 sheets of paper with the design font repeated on the page... Then I took a plain bar of Ivory soap (they come in packages of 3 and more - and BTW who knew Ivory smells so good!) laid it down on paper and wrapped it like it was a present...

I pulled up the sides and sealed them with matching labels that I printed with "savon" on them. The labels are easily made, using any size Avery labels in Word (the labels I used were 5160). And, if I do say so myself...they turned out lovely! Oh, I did wrap one using brown bag paper that I found near my work desk. And now I'm thinking how these could be personalized with monograms or someone's name as a gift or for house guests...the opportunities are endless I tell ya!

Sooo, was I done crafting? Of course not! I decided to print some calling cards for Dorie. Again, using an Avery label formatted for 5871 (which are "clean edge" business cards) and the same two fonts and colors, I printed these aDORIEable cards...
After I sat back to look at all the pretties, I headed to Safeway to pick up a few items and there I saw this tiny treasure...a green vintage-looking bicycle that had my sister's name written all over it. So, I quickly bought it, took it home, added a plant to it (which I wrapped with a scrap of burlap) and of course, added a tiny version of the birthday sign. It looks so cute in Dorie's house!

And that's it folks! The end of my subsituting today. Happy blogging!

Michele